Ramblings on explosives, guns, politics, and sex by a redneck farm boy who became a software engineer.

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It’s a fine line…

Between “manly men doing manly things,” and “hold my beer and watch this.”

Click to embiggen, of course.

Neighbor had a tree tip over, threatening to fall on the other neighbor’s fence. He wanted help taking it down in small enough pieces to not break the fence. So there I am, about twenty feet up in the air, standing on a wobbly tree with a chainsaw, trying to cut off chunks under tension, torsion, leverage, and compression, caught between the weight of the main trunk, the rest of the branch, neighboring trees, the ground, etc. All went well, and I had fun.

I’ve been climbing trees since I was a toddler (much to my mother’s chagrin, and the horror of my pre-school wranglers), and handling a chainsaw since my early teen years.
No beer was involved.
I enjoy things like this – a bit of risk and careful thought, but not too much (of either), as well as a good physical workout.
But like I said, it’s a fine line…. If it works out, it’s manly. If it doesn’t, and there is video, then it’s youtube.

“I enjoy things like this – a bit of risk and careful thought, but not too much (of either), as well as a good physical workout.”

This statement, and the photo, brought my father to mind. He loved a challenge. I’ve got photos of him in a giant Oak tree with a chainsaw bigger than yours. He’s sitting on a branch that is as broad as a horse’s back. And he was about 75 yo then. IIRC, he took a break from driving 4×4 fence posts with a sledge, to trim that tree. (he had to make a steel cap for the top of the 4×4, so it wouldn’t break the wood)

Repeatedly. 🙂
That’s how I survive such adventures- I wait for the answers, and act accordingly. When you are standing on top, the stuff you are cutting off has a much harder time falling on you then when you are on the ground reaching way up high with the chainsaw in one hand.

I had to do this exact job once: remove the partially fallen tree before it completed its drop onto the neighbor’s fence.

It was relatively easy. I called the high school teenager up the street, a competent young man of 16, and asked if he wanted to earn a few bucks with his chainsaw.

He brought three of his football team friends with him to help. Highlight of the afternoon included watching him ride the bucking tree immediately after he dropped the top half to the ground, legs wrapped around the trunk, live chainsaw waving in the air. A close second was watching him and his friends lift the 24″ diameter walnut logs, 8′ each, end over end, up the back yard hill to the pickup parked out front, apparently because rolling the logs never entered their athletic heads.

Good times. His dad took the walnut and turned it into several tables.

Glad it worked out… What pros call “a widow maker”. A tree that’s part way down, but not QUITE at rest yet.

Although I use them as needed, I’m scared to death of chainsaws, as well as semi trucks and primary HE’s. Probably why none of the above have killed or injured myself/anyone else under my care…

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